New plugin beta test: Wild Blossom Saturator

[Michael Willis]

wild-blossom-saturator-screenshot-2024-02-23.png (38.57 KiB) Viewed 2984 times

I'm working on a new suite of plugins. The first one is this saturation effect. Feedback is welcome from beta testers. Don't use it for anything serious (yet), as features are likely to change based on feedback.

The control on the bottom that looks like an EQ might not be what you think. Rather than applying the EQ filter to the entire output, this instead is applied only to the harmonics that result from the saturation. So let's say your original signal has overtones above 5kHz and you drag the low pass dot to 5kHz. This will tame the saturated harmonics above 5kHz without muting the original overtones.

This should adapt well to High DPI displays, as long as your plugin host properly communicates the scaling factor to the plugin. While testing, I found that the latest version of Carla and Ardour both do this right.

Download from Dropbox
Download from Google Drive

To Do:

• Presets

• Light/Dark Mode

Known bugs:

• Using the mouse scroll wheel on the dials doesn't work yet (but two-finger scroll on a track pad does work)

• The controls on the EQ curve don't always drag. I have to hold the mouse button, then wait a split second, then move it.

• I initially rendered all of the curves as a series of dots, but that looks terrible on high DPI displays. Some are fixed, some aren't.

To build from the code:

Get dependencies on Debian/Ubuntu/etc:

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sudo apt install cargo libgl-dev libx11-xcb-dev

Hopefully folks using non-apt distros can figure out how to get those dependencies.

Build the plugin:

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git clone https://gitlab.com/wild-blossom-audio/wild-blossom-plugins
cd wild-blossom-plugins
cargo xtask bundle wild-blossom-saturator --release

If all goes well, you should find wild-blossom-saturator.vst3 under target/bundled.

[a.d.]

I was able to compile on Arch by installing the cargo, libgl, and libx11 packages. Very cool interface. Some notes:

• Simple and fast compilation.
• Using Reaper and the vst3, the UI does not scale. Haven't tested clap.
• It's easy to make the signal sound louder. You might consider a gain control slider.
• The EQ curves are quite nice.
• I can confirm that I also sometimes have trouble dragging the EQ's dots, and that the mouse wheel can only set the curve control to zero.
• You might also consider a bypass for the EQ section as it seems pretty powerful. As a result, a bypass could allow users to more easily determine what's shaping the tone.

Thank you for the great plugin!

[Michael Willis]

@a.d. thanks for testing it! By "does not scale, " do you mean that it does not respond to window resizing? I haven't figured out how to do this with the graphics library that I'm using, but yes that would be a nice feature.

I'll definitely consider your suggestions. One of my goals is no snap/crackle/pop in response to any of the controls. Parameter smoothing easily solves that for most of the controls, but bypass is a little bit more tricky. I think I have a solution to toggle bypass the eq filter without a pop, I'll see if I can implement it this week.

[a.d.]

You're correct that I meant the UI does not respond to window resizing. The window's a bit tiny on my display. Once again, impressive plugin!

[Michael Willis]

The window's a bit tiny on my display.

Hmm... I tried the following combinations, all on high DPI displays:
Mac + Ardour: Good
Mac + Reaper: Good
Linux + Ardour: Good
Linux + Carla: Good
Linux + Reaper: Tiny!

Apparently Reaper has some HiDPI compatibility options on Windows, but those options aren't available on Linux?

I'm not sure that I will do anything to fix this, the plugin framework I'm using just takes a scaling factor parameter from the DAW and uses it.

Edit: I just read a Reaper forum post that suggests that we might get different results running X11 vs Wayland... sigh...

[LAM]

I'm working on a new suite of plugins. The first one is this saturation effect. Feedback is welcome from beta testers. Don't use it for anything serious (yet), as features are likely to change based on feedback.

Very nice interface, I'll give it a try!

I can't find a LICENSE file, from what I see from the source code the plugin should be under GPL3+, right?

[Michael Willis]

I can't find a LICENSE file, from what I see from the source code the plugin should be under GPL3+, right?

Yes, it is GPL3+, I will add a LICENSE file.

Edit: done.

[Michael Willis]

wild-blossom-saturator-screenshot-03-26-2025.png (48.44 KiB) Viewed 471 times

New update! Same instructions as above.

New Features:

• Threshold - decibel level at which the saturation curve starts
• Gain - increase or decrease output level
• Drive and Gain now have meters

Bug Fixes:

• Scroll wheel now works properly
• Curves now render properly on high DPI displays

[sunrat]

Wouldn't build on Bookworm.

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error: package `cargo-platform v0.1.9` cannot be built because it requires rustc 1.78 or newer, while the currently active rustc version is 1.63.0

Will try later on Trixie which has rust 1.85.0

Edit a short time later: Downloaded the binary from Dropbox (after creating a Dropbox account Ignore my access request at GDrive.). Loaded VST3 in Ardour and it seems to work well. Nice and grungy when pushed a little. Looks good on UHD monitor too.
I may actually use this a bit. Been a bit disappointed with some other saturators I've tried.
Thanks @Michael Willis !

[Largos]

Used the vst3. The equalizer doesn't seem to do anything below about 1-2k.

The google drive download requires you to request access.

[Michael Willis]

Thanks for trying it @sunrat and @Largos. Some notes:

The EQ only filters the harmonics that are added by the saturation stage. The idea is to be able to shape the saturation effect itself without dulling your original signal.

Depending on your input signal, adjusting the HPF and bell filter might not do much below 1k-2k. I've been testing with an electric bass and find that lifting the bell filter to +6dB around 400Hz to 1kHz does great things to influence the tone of the saturation on the bass, but I imagine that it wouldn't have much effect on an instrument like a guitar.

I'm not sure that the HPF really earns its place. I was thinking that it might be useful to set the HPF fairly high like 4kHz-5kHz or so, to retain only the very high saturated harmonics and add some "air" to the original sound, but I haven't really tried it, so I don't know how well it would work.

Access is fixed on the Google Drive link. Eventually I'll build a website at wildblossom.audio, but for now I'm just hosting the builds on Dropbox and Google Drive.

[Largos]

Ahh ok. What is also confusing me is it acts differently on single notes to multiple notes. I don't know which is the preferred one. When I play multiple notes it cuts higher harmonics and introduces lower frequencies. When I play single notes fast in sequence, when they overlap, it makes a distorted transition. I've changed volumes and it's not changed by altering the input signal.

[Michael Willis]

When I play single notes fast in sequence, when they overlap, it makes a distorted transition.

Could you make a recording of this and send it to me? I do experience a different distortion effect when I play two notes in harmony, but I assumed that was a common result of any saturation effect.

[Largos]

File is attached.

[Michael Willis]

Thanks, @Largos. I'm not surprised by these results. When you combine multiple notes, it results in much more complicated saturation harmonics, because the shape of the input wave is more complicated to begin with. Also, with multiple notes, the signal has a larger magnitude and engages the saturation effect more. I haven't tested this much with synthesizers, but I experience a similar thing when playing a single string on the electric bass and then playing two strings in harmony.

I'm going to try this with some other saturation plugins to see what happens. There might be some way to mitigate this.